NORTHERN IRELAND

Successive governments in Britain, since the struggle for demo­cratic rights opened out in Northern Ireland in the autumn of 1968, have more and more attempted to impress on the people of Britain that the struggle is one in which the main factor is that of religious differences, i. e. Protestant and Catholic differences and> since June 1970, when the Tories came to power in Britain, the need to restore “Law and order”. In the days and nights of violence; the deaths (upwards of 1,400) that have taken place; the continuance of internment since August 1971; the imprisonment of many thou­sands; loss of homes, jobs, small businesses and large scale destruc­tion of property: the reason for the struggle for democratic rights has been lost sight of — or deliberately suppressed.

From the inception of the Northern Ireland statelet which consisted of six Irish counties and contained one million Protes­tants and half-a-million Catholics, the determination of the North­ern Ireland Unionists and successive British governments has been to maintain the one-party rule of the Unionists, in the interests of British imperialism and to enable the latter to keep a hold on the politics and the economy of the rest of Ireland (26 counties). The Unionists were given carte blanche in the running of the statelet, and were allowed to practise discrimination in every shape and form against the Catholic section of the population and any and all forms of political opposition which might arise — and not least opposition from the trade union and labour movement. The Government of Ireland Act, 1920, prevented the passing of any legislation which would have militated against persons on the grounds of religion, and, therefore, no legislation was passed in this respect, excepting after the Second World War when a Bill which would have cut down the state payment of teachers in Catholic schools had to be thrown out.

But the Unionists had surer ways of preventing the opposition from gaining any strength. With their inbuilt majority at the polling booths for central and local government, the Unionists maintained control of all the apparatus of state.

As in central and local government, the pattern was repeated in the field of private industry and commerce. Before the division of the country, private industry was in the hands of those Who espoused the Unionist cause, men and women who had provided the funds to buy arms in 1912 to fight against the seeming intention of the British Liberal government of the day to grant a measure of home rule to Ireland. Such control enabled these forces to give employment on a political basis to manual and professional work­ers who were also “loyal.”

In order to ensure that the political opposition would be com­pletely cowedj the Northern Ireland Cfvil Powers Act, 1922 was intro-

duced and remained in being until July 1973, when the Westmin­ster government superseded it with the Emergency Provisions Act. Under the former Act, all democratic rights could be suspended when thought necessary by the Unionist administration. .Ostensibly the Act was to be used against “republicans”, but it could be and vas used against the unemployed in 1932 and members of’the Com­munist Party in 1933. The Act, as an instrument, was on a par with repressive legislation brought in by the Hitler regime in 1933 and later by the apartheid state of South Africa after the Second World War. The cornerstone of the Act was the right to intern without trial and, not least, suspension of habeas corpus.

It is not surprising, in such conditions, that the number of Roman Catholics within the state never grew to any further strength; it remained, and remains, at one-third of the population: this despite all the taunts of the Unionists that Catholics had a much higher birth-rate than the Protestants, and the fear of the latter, in one of their less elegant expressions, that they would be “outbred”. The Catholic section of the population, when they came of working age found it difficult to obtain employment and had either to live their life on the “dole” or emigrate. Those who wanted to marry and set up homes were dependent on the local authorities, and again they found there was “no room at the inn”, and lack of homes was an additional factor in driving them overseas. After the Second World War, the Unionists refused to introduce universal suffrage for local government elections. Only the husband and his spouse could register their votes for change, no matter how тану persons 7 there were in the family of voting age for the Stormont and West­minster elections.

The absence of democratic rights in the fields of employment, social needs and in politics was complete. In the whole history of the Stormont administration, the nationalist opposition succeeded in only one instance in having a measure which they proposed accept­ed by the Stormont parliament — it had to do with protection of wild fowl! Never was there any likelihood of measures affecting the people they represented being accepted. The inbuilt Unionist majority threw all such proposals out at the first reading.

As far as the working class was concerned, the Unionists sought their allegiance and subservience through the Unionist Party and Orange Order, and their boast was that both catered for the upper and middle classes and the working class. No Catholic could become a member of the Unionist Party and no person of that party was allowed to be elected to the parliament unless he was a member of the Orange Order. The Unionist Party, in its set-up and councils, provided for the inclusion of the Order at all levels and not least in the higher councils. This was provided for the first constitution of the Unionist Party in 1905.

The struggle for democratic rights was launched in 1968 in order to break this all-embracing stranglehold on normal politics in North­ern Ireland. The first slogans which were put forward were modest indeed: the abolition of discrimination in public employment; the abolition of discrimination in the allocation of homes in the. public section and the repeal of the Special Powers Act. They were sufficient to call out full-scale resistance by the state, complete with a police force armed to the hilt and the use of the ‘В Specials (alsa armed) which were looked upon as the private army of the Unionist Party, especially in the border areas of counties Derryt Tyrone, Fermanagh, South Down and South Armagh.

In the years that have passed since 1968, successive British , governments, Tory and Labour, never attempted to eradicate the undemocratic rule of the Unionists.

The situation has gone from bad to worse, mainly because no British government, which had, and has, the prime responsibility, has ever indicated their real intentions on Northern Ireland. Hid­ing behind the Unionist battle cry — “You can’t put one million Protestants into an Irish Republic” — and refusing to reveal the real role played in the interests of British monopoly capital, which controls the economic life of the area, they seek a middle way: to create a centrist alliance of the Protestant and Catholic middle class.

The Northern Ireland Assembly, brain-child of the British Tories, and its hand-picked Executive (which lasted only five months in 1974) met the full wrath of the paramilitary Unionist groups in May 1974 when the area was paralysed’ and the forces of “law and order”, including the British Army, stood by. The Wilson government, which in opposition had supported the Tory plans, dismissed the Executive after the Faulkner Unionists gave up the ghost. The Social Democrat and Labour Party (SDLP) and the Alliance Party refused to put in their resignations and were summarily dismissed by the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Merlyn Rees.

Direct rule was again brought in and efforts begun again to set up a centrist alliance with the aid of a Consultative Convention, wherein the elected representatives of the various parties would consider proposals for a structure with which to run Northern Ire­land. The parties were, and are, required to bring in proposals for presentation to the Westminster parliament which would be accept­able to the majority of the people in Northern Ireland and West­minster, and which would be based on “power-sharing” between the Unionists and other political parties, especially the SDLP. Discussions have gone on over the past months within the Conven­tion sittings and privately between the parties. It is clear, from recent reports, that practically all the parties have accepted the “constitutional position”, i. e. the link with Britain. All but the United Ulster Unionist Coalition have accepted the need for power- sharing. All the parties, excepting the SDLP, have thrown out the proposal for a formal link with the Irish Republic but want to have economic links based on no formal platform. The UUUC have accepted the need for a “coalition government” in “times of emergency”.

The trade union leadership has been active on the employment front, and workers are again learning that the politics of the Union­ist cabal are of little use to them in their desire for security of employment. They are also beginning to realize that they have little or no weapons at government level with which to fight against mass unemployment which, in September, accounted for 10,6 per cent of all insured workers, not counting married women who did not pay the full national insurance contribution.

Merlyn Rees has told the people of Northern Ireland that they will have to come up with proposals for future structures for govern­ing Northern Ireland. At the same time, he does nothing to bring about a normality that would enable the people to reason out their future. No attempt has been made to end the internment, the harass­ment of anti-Unionist areas by the British armed forces, to enact a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, or make clear British intent as far as the future of the area is concerned.

The Communist Party of Great Britain will discuss the whole issue at its November congress. A resolution, which will be put forward, will make clear the real issues and the overall responsibili­ty of the British government. The resolution states:

This 34th Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain condemns the repressive policy being followed by the British Labour government towards the people of Northern Ireland. Endless re­pression will never solve the crisis. What is .required is a complete turn in British policy, an end to repressive measures combined with urgent steps to introduce the necessary democratic changes and the withdrawal of British troops.

We therefore call on the British labour and progressive movement to work for such a policy and to insist that the government reverse its present course and introduce essential and long-overdue demo­cratic reforms.

Such an approach, if accepted and fought for, will bring lasting benefit to the workers of Britain and Northern Ireland.